Red, White and... Blue?

Recreating the U.S. Flag in your garden? Good luck with the blue.

Chances are, at some point in your garden adventures, you may have been bitten by the patriotic holiday bug, and decided to create your country’s flag in your yard, made up of plants. OK, maybe not every country is as jingoistic as we are here in the US of A, but it is a popular endeavor…creating the garden version of the flag, that is. And it so happens that Flag Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day neatly corresponds with a wide array of available blooming plants at nurseries.

Lobelia, alyssum and petunias (Photo: Pinterest-Henry’s Plant Farm)

So, what plants do you need for an American flag? Among the popular choices are geraniums, petunias, and begonias (for the red); cosmos, alyssum, pansies (for the white); and, for the blue…

Well, let’s get this out of the way right now: In nature, true blue pigment does not exist in flowers.